Two American Junior records lead to 43-medal total at Pan Am Juniors

8/1/2015

EDMONTON -- Rising high jump talent Vashti Cunningham and decathlete Harrison Williams set American Junior records in their events as Team USA reeled in 11 gold medals Saturday night to contribute to a 43 combined medal haul at the Pan American Junior Championships at Foote Field.

Vashti Cunningham (Las Vegas, Nevada) won gold in the women’s high jump with an American Junior record, when she cleared 1.96m/6-5, which also tied the World Youth best and was a Pan Am Junior meet record. She won the gold on her first attempt at 1.86 after the next closest challenger topped out at 1.83. Cunningham cleared 1.91 on her second try and had two misses at 1.94 before passing her final attempt and clearing her winning height on her first try. She missed three times at 1.99m/6-6.25.

Needing a near PR in the 1500 to set the American Junior record in the decathlon, Harrison Williams (Memphis, Tennessee) did just that and ran 4:29.20 to cap off an 8,037-point effort that broke the AJR of 8,018 set by Gunnar Nixon in 2012. Williams also set a meet record and became the 12th U.S. man to win the event as he moved to fifth on the all-time world junior list. Travis Toliver (Houston, Texas) scored 7,346 points to take the silver.

Raevyn Rogers (Houston, Texas) set the early pace in the women’s 800m for a dominating win. Leading wire to wire, Rogers finished in 2:04.62 for a victory by more than 30 meters.

DeAnna Hill (Orlando, Florida) won a very close women’s 200 meters, as an even field made it anyone’s race heading into the final stretch. Hill, the lone American in the final, finished in 23.18 for the gold medal.

On the men’s side, Noah Lyles (Alexandria, Virginia) won in 20.27 to add gold to the silver he won in the 100 Friday, and Ryan Clark (College Park, Georgia) claimed bronze in 20.62.

The medals kept coming for Team USA as Christopher Mirabelli (Lumberton, New Jersey) earned gold in the javelin with a best throw of 72.63m/238-3 on his sixth and final throw. Curtis Thompson (Florence, New Jersey) earned bronze with his 71.11m/233-3 in round three.

Team USA won gold and silver in the men’s 400mH after Norman Grimes (Canyon, Texas) broke stagger first, completely taking over the race on the back straightaway to gain a significant lead over the field and take gold in a lifetime-best 50.10. Heading into the final stretch Kenny Selmon (Mableton, Georgia) and Jamaica’s Marvin Williams were in the hunt and Selmon made one final push to edge ahead for second place in 50.29.

A super-slow first three laps set up a kicker’s dream in the men’s 1500 final, and Blake Haney (Bakersfield, California) and Brandon Pollard (Sisters, Oregon) had the best finishing speed to go 1-2 for Team USA. Haney was just a bit quicker and won in 3:56.49, .02 ahead of Pollard.

Americans Rachael Reddy (Mountain Brook, Alabama) and Caroline Alcorta (Springfield, Virginia) set a fast early pace in the women’s 5000 before Reddy surged ahead on her own and destroyed the meet record with a 16:23.35 that gave her the gold by more than 12 seconds. Alcorta ended up with bronze in 16:48.48.

Clearly out of the blocks fastest in the men’s 110mH, Misana Viltz (Long Beach, California) held off a strong challenge from Cuba’s Roger Iribarne over the final two barriers to capture gold in 13.30 on the lean, a .02 margin over Iribarne.

Capping off the evening session, Connor Hendrickson (Southlake, Texas) moved to the front of the men’s 10,000 in the final two laps and had a strong final 400 to clock 30:46.66 for gold. Bronze went to Chase Weaverling (Darnestown, Maryland) in 30:53.13.

Two more medals came in the women’s 3000 steeplechase with Hannah Christen (Burke, Virginia) winning silver in 10:24.32 and Alexandra Harris (Stony Point, New York) taking advantage of a competitor’s fall over the final barrier to race to bronze in 10:31.79.

Day one of the women’s heptathlon ended with Ashtin Zamzow (Goliad, Texas) atop the point standings with 3,283 points, 118 ahead of Kaylee Hinton (Wylie, Texas) in third.